For example, devices positioned at a stairwell will use broadband sound, making it possible for occupants to pinpoint the location. In between these bursts of broadband sound, a voice will clearly enunciate the words “stairs up” or “stairs down,” as well as “exit here” or “area of refuge,” at the appropriate locations.

Instructions in 15 language combinations, in addition to ExitPoint’s broadband, directional sound, are available to guide occupants to safety. The languages are:

• English
• Spanish
• French
• English/Spanish
• English/French
• Korean
• Cantonese
• Mandarin
• English/Cantonese
• English/Mandarin
• Cantonese/Mandarin
• English/Korean
• English/Portuguese
• English/Russian
• English/Polish

At System Sensor, we are committed to expanding the life-safety proposition, never accepting the status quo. This way of thinking led to the development of our ExitPoint™ directional sound product. By challenging the definition of life safety, we determined it’s not enough to just notify people of a fire — with our partners, we’ve done a good job of this for many years — but we should now guide building occupants to safety.

Ten years ago, this industry was not comprised of Fortune 50 companies. Today, with the entry of R&D-focused corporations like Honeywell, the expectations of end-users have heightened. Now, building owners, engineers and installers can expect to see an acceleration of new technology development. With access to a vast library of technological innovation, System Sensor is in a favorable position to address the issues facing the life-safety industry. Our reach now extends into monitoring gas (including carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide), wireless smoke detector systems and high-sensitivity smoke detection.

System Sensor will continue to look for avenues of growth.

Our best to you in 2006.

Jeffrey M. Klein

Commercial Business Line Leader

In addition to the widest line of conventional and intelligent smoke detectors, System Sensor now offers the only available system-connected carbon monoxide detector that is Underwriters Laboratories-listed for incorporating an integral trouble relay that communicates the sensor’s end-of-life signal to a control panel.

System Sensor recently partnered with CSAA and NBFAA to research carbon monoxide detector needs and issues. We want to help distributors, dealers, installers and end-users to better understand this important product category. The results of the research will be presented to those attending the CSAA Electronic Security Forum and will appear in our August LifeSafety magazine.

System Sensor’s recent launch of SpectrAlert® Advance, which boasts the industry’s widest range of field-selectable candelas and lowest current draw for audible-visible notification devices, is another success for the company, as was the introduction of the SP3 line of high sound-pressure speakers for large, open occupancies.

Also, we have expanded the capabilities of our ExitPoint™ directional sound product line, which is now available with voice messages that give evacuation instruction in 15 different language combinations.

Each of these products was introduced to the market within the past year.

You can expect even more product development and launches from System Sensor in the months to come.

Dave Lyons

Vice President of Sales
System Sensor U.S.

“Parents look for a good fire-alarm system and a good security system, and those things are important to them. If you have any common sense at all, you want that protection for your children,” says  Maxwell, who owns the Children’s Haven Child Care Center in Denver with her husband.

That’s why when Maxwell and her directors give tours at the center, they point out the new ExitPoint™ directional sound system that helps safeguard their young charges.

“It was a very smart move to do sounders versus horns and strobes,” says Efrain Cordova, an electrical contractor with Competitive Electric Inc. in Littleton, Colo. Efrain installed ExitPoint at the center, as well as a fire-alarm package that includes standard audible/visible devices.

Test Runs Prove System Effectiveness

Children’s Haven sets off ExitPoint during its monthly fire drills so that the children become accustomed to the sound and practice reacting to it. During their first ExitPoint drill, the center’s full building evacuation time dropped from about two minutes to one.

Although infants and toddlers are too young to evacuate the same way the older children do — and by law, their rooms must have their own outside exits — ExitPoint sounders are located above their exits to provide extra assistance for adult caregivers. “Even if the room filled with smoke and was in pitch-black darkness, they’d still get out,” says Cordova.

Sounders, in Cordova’s opinion, are “10-fold better than horns for a standard fire-alarm system” in helping people evacuate quickly.

A: In short, the sounder can be flush or surface mounted on the wall or ceiling. Beyond that, however, the concepts used to position directional sounders differ from standard notification appliances.  Generally, fire alarm notification appliances, such as bells, horns and speakers, require placement at numerous locations in order to achieve the sound levels that can be heard and understood throughout all building areas.

In a Type 1 basic installation of directional sound technology, the concern is not for establishing an audible signal in all occupied building spaces. Rather, the focus is on providing sound cues to assist occupants in more easily locating the point of entry to an exit.

Q: What if a building occupant is deaf?

A: Many sources of deafness, such as work-related hearing loss, are frequency specific, which means that these people cannot hear sounds in a specific, narrowband frequency range. The majority of people registered as “deaf disabled” in the U.S. are defined as such because they cannot hear sounds in the narrow frequency band containing speech. The ability to localize a sound is dependent on the sound containing broadband frequency content. Thus, individuals who are simply unable to hear sound in the typical speech band of 0.5-3 kHz would be able to hear and localize the broadband content coming from the directional sound speakers.

Q: Is there any risk of leading building occupants toward an exit that isn’t safe?

A: Emergency exit signs mark the pre-designated exits within a building. They make no attempt to indicate whether a route is safe or not. The evacuee has to make his or her own decision on which route to take. When used as a simple audible exit system, ExitPoint directional sounders are used as an aid to highlight where evacuation routes and exits are located, just like emergency exit signs.

When there are multiple exits equipped with ExitPoint speakers, building occupants usually follow the sounder that is closest to them because it is the loudest. Research indicates, however, that if there are signs that one or more route is less viable due to smoke, heat or sounds of distress, evacuees will choose a route that they believe will offer the best chance for survival.

Q: All of this sounds great, but how much will it cost? What kind of demand do you foresee for directional sound?

A: Depending on the application, the price of ExitPoint ranges from 4% to 10% of the total fire alarm system cost. During the first quarter of 2005, directional sound systems will be installed in a variety of building applications.

Q: How are directional sounders listed by the code bodies?

A: Directional sounders are listed to UL 464, Audible Signal Appliances. Under this standard, a directional sounder is listed as a supplemental notification appliance. Directional sound technology is also under consideration for NFPA 72.